Post by Admin on May 27, 2017 19:54:07 GMT
The World's top figure skaters including reigning Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN), 2010 Olympic Champions Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN), World, European and Four Continents Champions and medalists will compete in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series in the 2017/18 Olympic season.
The first event of the series this year is the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow (RUS), October 20 to 22. World and Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu will start his season there and will face Four Continents Champion Nathan Chen (USA). Two-time World Champion Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS) will meet five-time European Champion Carolina Kostner (ITA), who returns to the Grand Prix series after not competing in it in the past three seasons. The event also features Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA), Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev (RUS) and European Champions Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS). World Junior Ice Dance Champions Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons (USA) will debut at the ISU Grand Prix.
Skate Canada in Regina, SK (CAN), October 27 to 29 is headlined by three-time World Champion Patrick Chan (CAN), World silver medalist Shoma Uno (JPN), World silver medalist Kaetlyn Osmond (CAN), 2017 World Champions and 2014 Olympic silver medalists Virtue/Moir, two-time World Pairs Champions Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN) and World silver medalists Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot (GER).
Cup of China is the third event and will take place in Beijing November 3 to 5. World Champions Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN), two-time World Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA), Four Continents Champion Mai Mihara (JPN), 2017 World bronze medalist Gabrielle Daleman (CAN) as well as two-time World Champion Javier Fernandez (ESP) and World bronze medalist Boyang Jin (CHN) are competing. 2017 World Junior Champions Alina Zagitova (RUS) and Vincent Zhou (USA) will debut at the ISU Grand Prix.
The series continues with the NHK Trophy in Osaka (JPN) November 10 to 12 with Hanyu, Chan, Medvedeva and 2015 World silver medalist Satoko Miyahara (JPN). The pairs event includes Sui/ Han and 2014 Olympic silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS) while Virtue/Moir lead the dance event.
The circuit then moves back to Europe for the Internationaux de France November 17 to 19 in Grenoble (FRA). The event is headlined by Uno, Fernandez, Osmond, 2015 World Champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS), Tarasova/Morozov and Papadakis/Cizeron.
The last spots for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final will be decided in Lake Placid (USA) at Skate America November 24 to 26. Top contenders include Jin, Chen, 2016 World silver medalist Ashley Wagner (USA), Daleman, Duhamel/Radford, Savchenko/Massot and Shibutani/Shibutani.
134 skaters/couples from 25 ISU Members have been invited and few host country spots are still open. The number of entries for each event is 12 Ladies, 12 Men, 8 Pairs and 10 Ice Dance couples. The top 6 qualifiers in each discipline will proceed to the Final in Nagoya (JPN), December 7 to 10, 2017.
Adam Rippon (@adaripp) | Twitter